cover image A Taste of Africa

A Taste of Africa

Dorinda Hafner. Ten Speed Press, $24.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-89815-522-8

Hafner, who was born and raised in Ghana, knows what she's doing in this survey of African and African-derived foods circling the globe from the continent itself to its sundry beneficiaries--New Orleans, Cuba, Tobago, and others--where African culinary traditions have long mingled with native and once-colonial tastes. Before each of 16 chapters are a helpful map and informational tidbits (lists of the nation's food crops, etc.), and then, without further ado or introduction (which might have been both interesting and useful), we find palmnut soup with fufu (fufu is a dumpling-like food), from the Ivory Coast, or arroz con pescado al ron (rice and fish in rum), from Cuba, or fish in socks (i.e., batter), from New Orleans. Along with Hafner's recipes, her book's design jauntily stirs the appetite: full-color photos set the plenty of a meal or a course beside robustly well-wrought examples of African crafts. Prim styling seems the rule in cookbooks; Hafner's thrust is much more vivid and energetic. (Mar.)